Saturday, January 10, 2009

the green bookmark

a long time ago, in a country not too far away, there lived a young high school student, circa grade 10. he was just exploring the idea of being close friends with the opposite sex, and he had happened upon a nice girl who seemed to be doing the same thing. they smiled and started talking to each other.

they would share weird little artifacts: strange books, odd objects, funny laughs. and talk on the phone for hours. there was one phone in his household, and his parents would pickup the phone and say "oh hi who are you talking to? i need to use the phone" and he would blush with embarassment (luckily impossible for her to see) and say "give me a minute dad!"

he would ride the bus to school and hope she would be on the same bus. it was a fun, exploratory time.

at christmas they exchanged gifts. her gift to him was little women by louisa may alcott. inside the book was a simple, green piece of construction paper, fashioned in the shape of a bookmark.

he held the bookmark to his nose and inhaled -- the scent was floral, wonderful, and overpowering. in her letter to him, she noted that she mistakenly dropped a bottle of perfume on the bookmark. such a fantastic mistake to make!

years would pass, and he fell out of touch with his friend. he lost letters, the weird objects, perhaps even little women. but, he still has the bookmark to this day. and just today he sniffed at it, and the scent was gone. but it is still burned into his mind, something he won't forget.